It started out mildly enough, as Democratic Representative Carrie Meek of Florida delivered a routine denunciation of Speaker Newt Gingrich's lucrative book deal with a Rupert Murdoch- owned publishing house. But before Meek could reach the end of her short speech, the Republican-managed House ruled her out of order and voted to strike her remarks from the record. The parliamentary scrap immediately brought a phalanx of the people's Representatives to the floor to scream at one another, with Republicans denouncing the speech for lack of decorum and Democrats blasting the g.o.p.'s "totalitarianism." Later, in a...